Vaccination Rates Up for Those With Liver Disease, Diabetes

FRIDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccination rates for hepatitis A (HepA) and hepatitis B (HepB) in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) and diabetes increased from 1999 to 2008, but remain low, according to a study published online July 2 in Hepatology.

Zobair M. Younossi, M.D., M.P.H., and Maria Stepanova, Ph.D., from the Center for Liver Diseases at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. assessed the rates of HepA and HepB vaccination and sero-prevalence of anti-hepatitis A and anti-hepatitis B antibodies in patients with CLD and diabetes. A total of 24,871 individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys conducted from 1999 to 2008 were included.

The investigators found that 14 percent of the participants had CLD and 8.6 percent had diabetes. Both HepA and HepB vaccination increased in patients with CLD, from an average of 13.3 to 20.0 percent and an average of 23.4 to 32.1 percent, respectively, during the study period. Within CLD categories, HepA vaccination rates increased only among patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and HepB vaccination rates increased among patients with Hepatitis C and NAFLD. Among patients with diabetes, both HepA and HepB vaccination rates increased, from an average of 9.3 to 15.4 percent and from an average of 15.2 to 22.4 percent, respectively. The quality measure (QM) for HepA in the general population decreased from an average of 44.4 percent in 1999 to 2004 to an average of 41.7 percent in 2005 to 2008, with similar results observed for all sub-cohorts. QM for HepB increased from an average of 31.7 percent to 40.7 percent in the general population, with changes in QM seen only in NAFLD.

"Although vaccination rates in CLD and diabetic cohorts are increasing, they remain low," the authors write.